Registrations open now for Northland's GP conference and AGM. Check out our website for the line up and register with your suggestions of how we spend our Faculty funds. Be in by the 20th of March to have a chance to win one of five free conferences

The Kapa Kaiaka group was lucky enough to host Dr. Orna McGinn, from Auckland, for an evening of education regarding long acting reversible contraceptives. This was held at Te Whare Ora O Tikipunga and thirteen Kapa Kaiaka GPs from throughout Northland attended the evening. The goal of the session was to become more informed about the use of LARCs and have some skills based teaching regarding insertion of Jadelles, Mirena, and Copper IUDs. The session started with teaching by Orna and then there was opportunity for practice on models provided by Anton Garrido of Bayer. After the session we have endeavoured to match Kapa Kaiaka trainees with GPs who are already experienced in inserting IUDs and Jadelles in order to gain some supervised experience. There is a lack of a standardised training protocol for LARC insertions in NZ and Orna is instrumental in attempting to get one up and running, so we were very lucky to benefit from her expertise. Obviously a major barrier to LARC access for patients is the availability of GPs who are able to perform their insertions, so hopefully this session will enable a newer cohort of GPs to start learning these skills and increase patient access to LARCs in the future.

The workshop aims to upskill our rural workforce in screening for depression and suicide risk, developing safety plans, counselling about access to lethal means of suicide, and organizational or office protocols for this important work. There is more information about the dates, venues and content of the workshop plus a registration page through this link

Our local specialists in orthopedics, cardiology and oncology will present along side our registrar audits. You will have a chance to hear from Mike Roberts and discuss urgent care access with a panel of local GPs who have been doing some work on access and urgent care in their clinics.

Seasons Cafe will be presenting lunch, The Coffee Man will indulge your caffeine needs and the Medical Museum will be open for viewing.

The Northland Faculty RNZCGP would like to invite Northland GPs, Practice Managers, Practice Nurses and Pharmacists to their annual symposium - Homegrown Medical Treasures on the 28th October. This will be hosted at the Vintage Car Club, Kiwi North, Maunu so that attendees can take the opportunity to enjoy the treasures of the Medical Museum during morning tea and lunch. New specialists from the hospital will present in the morning along with the popular registrar audits. This will be followed by an afternoon workshop session on urgent care provision. You can register by clicking this link We look forward to seeing you there.

This is a reminder that the Northland Faculty is hosting a Kapa Kaiaka skills session on the 31st August. This session is aimed at registrars and Kapa Kaiaka fellows who wish to upskill in Jadelle, Mirena and IUD insertions. The evening is led by Dr Orna McGinn, who has developed Goodfellow Unit modules on womens health, and involves some pre-reading activities, a practical session and then ongoing supervision by senior GPs. Please register your interest by contacting Dr Gabby Montgomery the Kapa Kaiaka co-ordinator: gabrielle.montgomery@gmail.com. There is a maximum number of 15 places available - there are only three spaces left.

The faculty is also looking for senior GPs who would be able to undertake ongoing supervision of newer GPs in Jadelle, IUD and Mirena insertions. Please contact Gabby if you can help out.

The Northland Faculty is pleased to announce that it is hosting a Kapa Kaiaka skills session on the 31st August. This session is aimed at registrars and Kapa Kaiaka fellows who wish to upskill in Jadelle, Mirena and IUD insertions. The evening is led by Dr Orna McGinn, who has developed Goodfellow Unit modules on womens health, and involves some pre-reading activities, a practical session and then ongoing supervision by senior GPs. Please register your interest by contacting Dr Gabby Montgomery the Kapa Kaiaka co-ordinator: gabrielle.montgomery@gmail.com. There is a maximum number of 15 places available.

The faculty is also looking for senior GPs who would be able to undertake ongoing supervision of newer GPs in Jadelle, IUD and Mirena insertions. Please contact Gabby if you can help out.

As part of the Kapa Kaiaka programme, for new Fellows and registrars, the Faculty is running a training session on how to insert IUDs, Mirenas and Jadelles. The training session details will be advertised shortly. As part of the training we are wanting to have a number of experienced GPs to be available over the following months to assist in supervising course attendees in insertion techniques. We envisage that this would require supervisors to be willing to invite course attendees to their practice, when they have a consenting patient, for the Kapa Kaiaka member to practice inserting an IUD, Mirena or Jadelle. In this way we hope to provide a safe and supportive environment for younger GPs to upskill.

If you are willing to act as a supervisor then please contact Gabby Montgomery (gabrielle.montgomery@gmail.com) the Kapa Kaiaka Coordinator.

Be in quick... registrations to the Great Russell Conference are closing on the 10th May. If you want to join over 80 of your peers from Northland who have registered to date you need to register online through this link

The Great Russell Conference is shaping up to be a big one this year with a record number of registrations. If you have yet to register then please visit our website. The after dinner speaker is a local wine expert and we will be holding a wine tasting at the dinner so don't forget to book a ticket. In addition we are holding a Kapa Kaiaka meet and greet session with free drinks and nibbles after the Saturday session - please register your interest in attending with our Kapa Kaiaka coordinator Gabby Montgomery: gabrielle.montgomery@gmail.com. The timetable for the Great Russell Conference is:

Participants are wanted for a study to understand the positive factors that keep general practitioners working in Northland. The results of the study will be used in recruitment and retention planning for Northland General Practice.

If you have been practicing as a GP in Northland and for 1 year or more, full or part time and practice or live within Whangarei, Dargaville, mid North or the far North then please contact Tanya Quin by email at themytquin686@gmail.com or on 0220139570 for more information.

The Northland Faculty is holding a meet and greet for Kapa Kaiaka mentors and mentees at the 'Great Russell Conference' on the 20th May from 5-6pm. Free drinks and snacks will be provided. If you are a registrar, new fellow or are part of the Kapa Kaiaka programme (as either a mentor or mentee) then you are welcome to attend. Please RSVP to the Kapa Kaiaka coordinator Gabby Montgomery for catering purposes.

Congratulations to Martin Esser and Zaw Win for winning the 'Rural Practice of the Year' award at the recent Rural Health Conference in Wellington. For a full write up on their award please follow this link

The minutes of the last Faculty Board minutes are available to read on our website. A link to the minutes is here

Please remember to register for the Great Russell Conference held on 20th and 21st May. Our new online registration now takes credit cards and is super easy to use. The link to the conference page is here

The following is a message from the college that we feel Northland GPs may be interested in:

As you know the College is actively engaged in a campaign to raise awareness of the looming shortage of GPs and the inequities of the current funding system.

We’ve had a good run of media coverage recently and we want to continue this, but we need more story leads. We’re hoping that you and your Faculty and Chapter members may be able to help us source some stories – in particular we need examples of communities that are short of GPs, perhaps practices that have closed their books, maybe GPs facing burnout due to extra workload and no back up. We’ve got some leads to follow, but we want more from around the regions.

By way of an update, our campaign also includes plans to develop digital postcards for you to send directly to the Minister of Health outlining your concerns for other health sector. We are also going to set up a Facebook page where members of the public can learn about the GP shortage and can share their experiences. There is also a proposal to hold a health summit with political party’s spokespeople.

We have made some good progress, but we’re keen to keep the momentum going, so any suggestions would be gratefully received.

If you have any stories that may illustrate the issues of GP shortages or increased workload then please let us know by emailing Tanya Quin